Antarctica's Mammoth Ice Break

By Bryan WalshFriday, Dec. 17, 2010

AP Photo

From the March 15, 2010 issue of TIME Magazine

For all the predictable battles over the state of climate science  from the halls of Congress to the overheated blogosphere  the truth is that our planet still has the potential to surprise us. On Feb. 26, a team of French and Australian scientists reported news of a huge iceberg's collision with the Mertz Glacier on the eastern coast of Antarctica. A chunk of sea ice approximately the size of Luxembourg was gouged out. Owing in part to warming global temperatures, Antarctica is losing ice all the time  about 24 cu. mi. (100 cu km) worth each year  a development that is slowly but steadily raising global sea levels, and scientists worry that climate change could suddenly accelerate that vast melting. But the models indicate that ice loss should be happening on the western edge of the continent, where it is warmer, not in the much cooler east. No doubt there are complicated scientific reasons for this, but it pretty much boils down to what one researcher told a reporter: "There are some crazy things going down in Antarctica." It's a reminder that while the global-warming wars will continue, Earth has no obligation to stand still.